Small Grant Fund supported Common Bird Monitoring Scheme and Atlas work in Bulgaria

Through the Small Grant Fund, the European Bird Census Council (EBCC) supported ongoing programmes of Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (CBMS) and atlas work in Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) in a gap funding year. In 2024, there were no government or any other funding to support the coordination and data analyses for CBMS in Bulgaria.  Thus, the EBCC funding was crucial in maintaining these programmes during a period of budget gap, ensuring the continuation of one of Bulgaria’s most important long-term biodiversity datasets. Moreover, it came at the 20th anniversary of Bulgaria’s CBMS. The EBCC funding enabled BSPB to:

• Support the work of the National CBM coordinator
• Successfully complete the 2024 monitoring season with full dataset continuity.
• Analyse long-term trends based on 294 survey plots surveyed at least for 3 years;
• Compile a report for 20th anniversary of Common Bird Monitoring in Bulgaria (2005-2024)
• Provide CBMS data to the Executive Еnvironmental Аgency
• Ensure Bulgaria’s contribution to the pan-European dataset for 2024, preserve valuable continuity in trend analyses, and raise public awareness of the importance of long-term monitoring for biodiversity conservation

Declining birds constituted 26% of all species assessed. Since 2005, the Farmland Bird Index in Bulgaria is declining with 37% . Some of the species with biggest declines are Calandra Lark (-75%), Corn Bunting (-70%), and Northern Wheatear (-70%). Species with significant increasing trend are Common Woodpigeon, Common Pheasant and Common Whitethroat.

For the near future of the CBMS programme in Bulgaria, BSPB has managed to ensure 3 years of funding from the Government fund managed by the Ministry of Environment and Water. This funding will ensure not only the working capacity of the national coordinator but also finances for monitoring of additional plots, communication and work with volunteers and maintenance of the SmartBirds data base and app until 2027.

The EBCC funding also enabled BSPB to collect additional information for the national breeding bird atlas and to cover less studied areas. Many localities of rare and cryptic species were discovered. Some of the highlights include:

• Four previously unknown pairs of Golden Eagles were discovered
• New locality of Lesser Spotted Eagle in Western Balkan Mountains
• New locality of Montagu’s Harrier in Central Bulgaria
• Six previously unknown pairs of Peregrine Falcons were discovered
• Two new localities of Rock Thrush
• New breeding site of Wallcreeper
• Northernmost locality of Olive-tree Warbler (two singing males present in the same location in May and June) near the border with Romania
• Many new localities of Masked Shrike including in urban parks
• New locality of Hazel Grouse

Stoycho Stoychev, BSPB